Marlena follows fifteen-year-old Cat after a move to a small Michigan town where she meets Marlena, a magnetic and self-destructive neighbor. Their intense friendship propels Cat through a single, fateful year whose consequences echo for decades.

Told in a careful back-and-forth between past and present, the novel examines how youthful choices, loss, and the persistence of memory define a life long after an event has passed.

Readers who appreciate literary contemporary fiction will find a quietly powerful study of friendship, grief, and the ways we keep—or try to bury—what haunts us.

Details

• Setting: rural Michigan
• Themes: coming-of-age, grief, memory, friendship
• Publisher: Henry Holt and Company • 274 pages • Hardcover

We ship at a flat rate of $9.99 per order. Orders $35 and up ship free of charge.